Sid Meier's Civilization VI is almost the perfect portable companion on the Switch. Unfortunately, this particular version is missing one major feature: online multiplayer.

The community representative from Aspyr recently explained why this particular feature was absent from the Switch release:

It sounds basic, until you realize that both private and public games required significant back end work.

Civ VI on desktop utilizes Steam for things like friends lists (required for private games) and server listing (required for public games). Implementing these things per unique system takes considerable effort. I'm aware the Switch has some of those systems, but it's still requires custom implementation.

This was supported by a comment stating how Apple versions of the game did not include online multiplayer, either:

The Mac App Store version and iOS version do not have online multiplayer for similar reasons.

While online multiplayer in the Switch release seemingly won't be happening, Nintendo players can still look forward to the Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm expansions coming to this version of the game later this year. A hotseat mode will also be added in the future, allowing players to take turns on a single system.

When he’s not paying off a loan to Tom Nook, Liam likes to report on the latest Nintendo news and admire his library of video games. His favourite Nintendo character used to be a guitar-playing dog, but nowadays he prefers to hang out with Judd the cat.

I love the Civ games and look forward to dropping yet another hundred hours into this game when the expansion comes out.

But you can keep online mode for this game. I can't get people to play Monopoly with me for 2 hours. Civ games on the highest speed are rarely less than 6-8 hours each. I've had games on big maps last 20+

hehe, I´ve picked a couple of levels (the scale is not intuitive), one of them got me wiped out pretty quickly. Now, I think I can turn off religion but I´d like to figure out the game eventually with everything like it should be. (I think it was Deity-level, that word wasn´t in my vocabulary ... it sounded like a pushover taunt.) I know now settler is the right level.

The DLC isn’t on Switch? Man, it’s borderline unplayable once you’ve played with both R&F and GS. They add a massive amount. It’s just a shame that mods will never be on Switch, they’re what make these sorts of games. I have about 30 GB of mods for Civ V ranging from Henry Morgan and the Buccaneers to Hitler.

@tovare@Heavyarms55 Yeah, I've been playing Civ since Civ 3 when I was a kid and my dad has been playing since Civ 1 and both of us tend to play on 3 to 5 difficulty even though we know the mechanics well. One of the few problems with the series is that rather than make the AI significantly better at difficulties above 5, they usually make the AI have advantages you don't, like building things faster. That isn't fun difficulty in my opinion when Genghis Kahn can just build more units than you and curb stomp you in the classical era every time, so I usually just pick an AI level where they aren't handicapped but aren't getting super good advantages either when I'm playing for fun.

I've been playing on my laptop rather than on the Switch, so I didn't know that the Switch didn't have hotseat. Honestly, I thought before they ever announced Civ for Switch that Switch would be great for hotseat since you can pass it around. To be honest, I'm glad I haven't gotten the Switch version because I would have been disappointed that it doesn't have hotseat. Although to be honest I didn't get it on Switch because I don't want to go back to vanilla Civ VI when PC has expansion packs...

@Dodger Well the Switch version is getting the hotseat and expansion packs, so there is that. I have it on PC too and while I like that I have both the expansions and the ability to run mods on PC, I love playing this game on a portable system! I played Civ 3 a lot back when I was in school, and play 5 in college, all on PC of course. Kudos to your dad for playing since Civ 1! That's a long time to stay with a series!

Got this on a deal at argos but I've been waiting on the dlc before I start. I don't know whether I'm excited or scared that dlc is coming this year, I'm worried this will actually take over my life!!!

Great. Now that I bought a second copy of the game for local WiFi multiplayer they finally come up with a hotseat mode.

@tovare I didn't win a single game just like you, even on the lowest difficulty setting. There's so much going on and the AI seems to be able to do twice as much as you do in one round. I can't progress on all levels, I need to focus on a few things. And then the AI beats me in the late game. So frustrating. At the lowest difficulty setting players should easily be able to dominate the map.

I’m happy we’ll get the expansions. I’m not interested in online anyway. My only problem with the game is that they include bigger maps, but they are unplayable because the slowdown gets so bad. I can only ever play Tiny, even Small and Standard get too bad halfway through a game.

@Heavyarms55 People not wanting to play Monopoly may be an issue with you wanting to play Monopoly of all things.But yeah, Civ in multi isn't so hot. Once someone starts getting ahead everyone else starts calling it quits. It's va difficult game to catch up in.

I have devoted thousands and thousands of hours to this franchise since Civ 2 in the 90's. Exactly zero of them were spent playing online.

Even if you're an online play enthusiast, I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would want to play an entire Civ run while enduring literal hours of downtime while someone else takes their turns in a remote location.

@ricklongo I'm in a similar position myself, so I agree, but modern Civ games online have rulesets designed to speed things up (turns at same time, short games, etc.). I've played some online with a friend, not with randoms.

@tisteg80 There really is a lot going on in Civ VI - they added a metric ton of little mechanics since Civ V. In addition, there's fewer civs with passive buffs that are easy to use for beginners, they often have more complicated special powers than Civ V. It's hard to pay attention to all of the mechanics at once and to know what mechanics you don't have to pay attention to. My suggestion if you're starting the series with Civ VI is to play on 1-3 difficulty while you get used to how the game works. There's no shame in playing a game or two on settler as a tutorial when there are so many decisions to make.

The issue here isn't the lack of online multiplayer in Civ. The issue is that Nintendo online is still lacking a ton of features that players and developers need if the Switch is going to get serious about online gaming.

@Heavyarms55 I guess some people have to. I am just used to people defaulting to Monopoly if they don't actually know other non-abstract, non-two player board games exist. And most are way better than Monopoly.

@SmaggTheSmug Everyone knows how to play Monopoly. There are tons of cool board games around but generally you have to spend an hour explaining them first. Hard enough to get people to play a game they know.

Course that's just my life story, I don't focus on single player games entirely by choice. Mostly, but not entirely.

@Heavyarms55 Funnily enough most people play Monopoly incorrectly, since no one bothers to read the rulebook. And a lot of games are actually simpler, not requiring a banker for one thing.
Settlers of Catan or Barenpark require 10-15 minutes of explanation. And the experience will be much more rewarding.
It's worth mentioning that Monopoly's original version was designed to be deliberately miserable. "The Landlord's Game" was supposed to teach people why capitalism is evil.

@SmaggTheSmug Well capitalism is evil. But that's a different topic. But I like the game and yeah there are some popular unofficial rules, but the thing is, everyone I know, knows them. So if I can find 2 or 3 other people to sit down with and play all we have to do is grab the game and some beers and have fun.